micmic66
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posted on October 22, 2001 06:25:44 PM
I have a Canadian buyer who wants me to check the gift box on the customs form to save him paying %14. Am I at risk doing this?? Thanks!!
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ezinkjetstore
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posted on October 22, 2001 06:47:01 PM
This is against US Customs law. Simply tell your buyer that you will not lie on a customs form. If they don't like it then tell them you won't complete the purchase. There's no point in lying on the form.
http://www.ezinkjetstore.com
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skeetersdaddy
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posted on October 22, 2001 06:59:11 PM
why not say its a gift...who exactly will be questioning you. i always mark my customs forms as a gift. i think of my items as gifts to my friends the bidders, gifts they must pay for but gifts none the less.................help them out, all the talk here about it being against customs law is true but lets be real, if you are just shipping every once in awhile whats the harm...
i say do it and don't worry about it
ok naysayers pick apart my comment and try and make your point thru fear....but i still say its no big deal.
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jubilee333
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posted on October 22, 2001 07:07:36 PM
I am a Canadian seller and I always check off "gift" on the customs sticker when I'm sending to U.S. buyers (which is most of the time). I don't see what the big deal is either. You are fudging the truth slightly, but let's face it. If you are not running under a company name, then you are shipping from your name to another individual and no one is going to question it. Especially if you are dealing with smaller-priced items. If you are running under a company name then I wouldn't ship as gifts. Otherwise I don't see a problem. Customs isn't going to call you up over it. And lately with the slowdown, I think the prices that a lot of items are going for nowadays, we're basically giving the stuff away anyway.  Okay, not exactly, but most customers get deals.
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sun818
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posted on October 22, 2001 07:09:44 PM
If you don't mark it as a "gift" the buyer will go to another seller that will. And that's not a bad thing...
[ edited by sun818 on Oct 22, 2001 07:11 PM ]
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kiawok
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posted on October 22, 2001 07:09:46 PM
micmic
I suggest you ignore the last 3 comments, and read this thread:
http://www.auctionwatch.com/mesg/read.html?num=2&thread=416305&id=416305
[ edited by kiawok on Oct 22, 2001 07:10 PM ]
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Zazzie
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posted on October 22, 2001 07:32:32 PM
jubilee333---American Green customs forms hve 3 check boxes 'gift, merchandise and sample
Canadian Green customs forms have 2 check boxes, gift and sample of merchandise. When I ship something from Canada I don't check either box cause it is neither and I am not lying about anything
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ptimko
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posted on October 22, 2001 07:49:28 PM
I noticed that someone asked what's the harm in aiding someone to avoid paying taxes and duty to their government...
I'm a Canadian, in consideration of the fact that our government relies on taxes and duty to help them pay for social programs which all Canadians have access to. The result is lower revenues for the government making less money available for our social programs.
I sometimes wonder if those people who wish to avoid paying taxes would prefer if they also had to start paying for their own healthcare when the Canadian government can no longer afford to fund it. Or perhaps we could start charging tolls on all of the highways to help pay for their maintenance...
Granted their is always going to be some waste in government expenditures, but I kinda like having free healthcare and toll-free highways throughout the country...
If I choose to purchase something outside of the country I always take into account the additional cost of taxes and duty when determining how much I'm willing to pay for it. Even with the inclusion of taxes and duty, I often find that I am able to purchase items from the USA, have them shipped all the way to Canada and still save a significant amount of money...
If buyers are not willing to pay the appropriate taxes and duty when importing goods into the country then maybe they should just shop inside their own countries...
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morgantown
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posted on October 22, 2001 07:56:26 PM
I no longer respond to "please mark custom form as gift" requests. Everything gets marked as merchandise and actual bid cost.
I don't commit a crime to save someone fifty-cents. Would they come and bail me out? Yeah right.
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wbbell
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posted on October 22, 2001 08:45:36 PM
i think of my items as gifts to my friends the bidders
Sheesh. Please! It is this type of nonsense that causes unending problems for the rest of us!
I had a newbie buyer leave me a neg because I did not write gift on the customs form. I should note that he did not ask me to do that but rather assumed I would. "I've bought tons of stuff off of ebay and everyone always writes gift. You're just being an azzhole!!" or some such.
Marking the package as a gift is quite obviously illegal and not a good business practice anyway. Someone paid you for the item. Thus it is clearly, NOT, a gift.
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fonthill
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posted on October 22, 2001 10:44:19 PM
Obviously there are two schools of thought on this matter and arguing isn't going to make anyone see either side... However, let it be known that Canada customs start with a flat $5.00 (Canadian funds) service fee to assess value of an item.
I thought Free trade was supposed to end duty on items crossing the border, however, it was replaced with taxes that can run as high as 15% of the value declared. MANY US sellers put a higher value for insurance including cost of shipping+! However Canadian buyers are assessed for taxes on this amount and it adds up. Whatever your feelings on the matter, I am getting very leary of buying from any US seller who is not willing to work with me on value declaration. If you don't wish to "help" by putting lesser values, then at least don't overevaluate.
A recent $25.00 (CAD funds) teacup & saucer ended up costing me $70.00 (CAD funds) with shipping and customs and I vowed I would never buy from another US seller unless they were willing to at least declare the bare minimum...
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kiawok
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posted on October 22, 2001 10:56:43 PM
Why would any US based seller be willing to "declare the bare minimum", on an item they are shipping with insurance for the "value" of what you paid for it? Duh!
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celebrityskin
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posted on October 23, 2001 07:04:09 AM
"I am a Canadian seller and I always check off "gift" on the customs sticker when I'm sending to U.S. buyers (which is most of the time)."
Don't bother doing it for American bidders. I have never had one come back and say they had to pay duty on a package from Canada.
Has an american buyer ever had to pay duty on a average package.... lets say $50?
Duty at ANY time for that matter.
While in Canada it can be a regular thing to pay extra on packages.
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Eventer
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posted on October 23, 2001 07:33:43 AM
celebrityskin,
The only time I can recall paying duty was on a set of Baccarat crystal I bought in Europe & had shipped back. But the price tag was way on up there. Never had to pay duty on anything lower priced.
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ladyatana
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posted on October 23, 2001 07:51:46 AM
I had one individual in Europe ask to me mark their items as a gift. The actual cost of the item was a whopping $4.00 (U.S.).
In that case I did, but since then I have placed an disclaimer on my auctions stating that I welcome international bids, but I will not lie on customs forms.
I also had to state that I will not be resposible for customs charges. One Canadian buyer emailed me and demanded that I refund him the amount that was charged by customs. HUH? Needless to say, that customer did not get their request.
Other than that, I have sold several items internationally and never had a problem.
Now, back to the subject...
The reason I refuse to mark a package as a gift is simply my reputation. I live in a small town where everyone including the postal workers, know that I am selling items online. With the one package I did mark as a gift, I felt as if the postal workers' opinions of me had gone downhill. Therefore, I will never do it again.
Lady Atana
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peiklk
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posted on October 23, 2001 07:54:12 AM
If you sell the item on ebay, it is NOT a gift, it is merchandise. Anyone saying anything else is being dishonest. Those of us who do the right thing do not do so out of fear, but out of honor and integrity.
I suggest you do the right thing as well and mark it as merchandise.
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captainkirk
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posted on October 23, 2001 09:05:10 AM
". i think of my items as gifts to my friends the bidders"
I sure wish I could "think of" my salary as a "gift" from my employer in the same way. If I did that, the IRS would, no doubt, "think of" my return as being illegal.
And I'd love to "think of" myself as being the sex slave for the Dallas Cowgirl Cheerleaders, but that (sad to say) isn't reality either.
Moral questions aside, just from a business perspective, do you want to take the chance that customs will, in fact, track you down (via easily-obtainable information) all for some benefit to a buyer who, in 99% of the time, you will never see again?
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Zazzie
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posted on October 23, 2001 09:07:00 AM
Fonthill---if you had gone on a day trip to the USA and purchased the same tea-cup you would have had to pay that amount at the border when returning to Canada (unless you chose to smuggle it across the border---though if you were caught doing so you would have had your car and goods confiscated).
But if you did declare it and pay the taxes at Canadian Customs, you would not have to pay the $5.00 charge from Canada Post, but you would have spent more than that on travelling time, food and gas.
I'm a Canadian seller, but I ship a lot of stuff in the USA using Global Priority Envelopes---the Green USA custom stickers--unlike the Canadian ones have a detachable white form where you fill in your address and the recipents address and you sign and date this document and it goes on file at USPS. This document just looks too darn official to be lying on it.
I sympathize with any Cdn buyer who gets an item that is Over-Valued on the customs form, but I can't expect a USA seller to sign their name to an offical document and then lie on it by calling it a gift.
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blacklabel
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posted on October 23, 2001 09:13:55 AM
I assume sellers that would not "lie" on the customs form is declaring their eBay income on their taxes. I don't mark as Gift, but do reduce the value.
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Zazzie
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posted on October 23, 2001 09:24:19 AM
Value on auction items is sort all over the board.
There may be the final value price, then there is the retail price, or maybe the garage sale price you paid for it or in some collectibles, the 'black-book' price.
There are numerous different amounts that could be used as the value on the customs form which the seller could use and hopefully the lower is chosen, but if they do not want to say it is a gift, that should be respected.
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kiawok
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posted on October 23, 2001 09:36:34 AM
As far as Canada Customs, & the US Customs are concerned, there's only one definition for the "value" of an item, which is the amount paid for the item by the importer.
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celebrityskin
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posted on October 23, 2001 09:56:47 AM
Been sending goods via the mail for 15+ years and have marked every single package a gift. (Overseas).
Never once had a single problem, and I've saved folks alot of money over the years.
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celebrityskin
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posted on October 23, 2001 09:57:54 AM
"I assume sellers that would not "lie" on the customs form is declaring their eBay income on their taxes."
People like to pick and choose the "laws" they break. Hey, I Jay walk all the time!
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kiawok
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posted on October 23, 2001 10:04:51 AM
I don't think anyone has to fear doing any jail time over marking overseas merchandise as "gifts", but the US to Canada & vise versa "gift parcels" are the ones that can come back & bite you on the arse.
And if you don't think so, perhaps you should read this.
http://www.auctionwatch.com/mesg/read.html?num=2&thread=366545
[ edited by kiawok on Oct 23, 2001 10:07 AM ]
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morgantown
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posted on October 23, 2001 10:09:11 AM
People like to pick and choose the "laws" they break. Hey, I Jay walk all the time!
Perhaps so; however, if I'm going to break a law it's going to be to my benefit not some stranger!
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sonsie
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posted on October 23, 2001 10:28:05 AM
My very first eBay purchase was a $150 item from Canada. Other than paying something more in postage than I would have expected if buying the same item from a U.S. seller, there was NO duty, tax, etc. It just showed up on my doorstep a week or so later. No problem at all.
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captainkirk
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posted on October 23, 2001 10:38:46 AM
"Been sending goods via the mail for 15+ years and have marked every single package a gift. (Overseas). "
The question we have to ask is...does the past predict the future in this case? In the past, person/person sales may have been pretty small, and there was no way to track such sales...but times have changed. There is more incentive to go after this trade, and more ability to do so.
So, i'd be careful about "resting on past laurels"...
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peiklk
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posted on October 23, 2001 11:31:52 AM
celebrityskin prattled: "Been sending goods via the mail for 15+ years and have marked every single package a gift. (Overseas).
"Never once had a single problem, and I've saved folks alot of money over the years."
So?
You've not really SAVED them anything. You've cheated the government, broken the law, and made them an accomplice. Sure you may never get caught. But those that do the right thing even knowing they won't get caught are the ones with morals and high standards.
The crime exists upon commission, not when it is revealed.
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wongjing
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posted on October 23, 2001 12:17:52 PM
I don't think there's a problem with declaring the real value if shipping to the US.
I think Americans don't pay any duties and taxes if the declared value is under $200, probably USD. For us, Canadians, it's a pain to buy on eBay from US buyers. Why?
Here's the official info.
You won't pay any taxes if:
it's "merchandise" with a value of less than $20CAN. Yes... that's like $13US!
OR
a gift valued less than $50.
That'S the official stuff... but sometimes, the customs officer is cool and let it go through. Else... well, it gets crazy. My brother bought a gamepad. The US seller put a declared value of $50 on it!!! My bro paid like $10 on eBay... so he had to pay $10 duties and entry fees. Not such a good deal after all.
Wong
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peiklk
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posted on October 23, 2001 12:20:28 PM
Sounds like an honest mistake on the seller's part. Many have mentioned here that they are so used to putting $50 value for insurance purposes (you're paying for $50 insurance) that when they do the customs form, they think they're doing a favor by putting $50 increments as well.
I simply put the final auction price, period and mark as merchandise.
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